Designing a Decision Support System for Distinguishing ADHD from Similar Children Behavioral Disorders

In this study, a decision support system was designed to distinguish children with ADHD from other similar children behavioral disorders such as depression, anxiety, comorbid depression and anxiety and conduct disorder based on the signs and symptoms. Accuracy of classifying with Radial basis function and multilayer neural networks were compared. Finally, the average accuracy of the networks in classification reached to 95.50% and 96.62% by multilayer and radial basis function networks respectively. Our results indicate that a decision support system, especially RBF, may be a good preliminary assistant for psychiatrists in diagnosing high risk behavioral disorders of children.     

Challenges for the determination of spiramycin in aqueous matrices using LC-MS/MS: evidence for the solvent intrusion on the molecule integrity

Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS) is an accurate and specific technique for drug residue analysis in different matrices. The high specificity and sensitivity of the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) approach for detecting drugs such as aldehydes, which have the potential to change mass during the sample preparation phase, becomes a drawback during the analysis process. In this study, concerns about the intrusion of solvent molecules into spiramycin''s chemical structure as an aldehydic drug as well as the stability of spiramycin in the milk matrix were addressed. Furthermore, the binding sites where the solvent molecules could bind to spiramycin molecules were investigated through nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. It was revealed that water, ethanol, and methanol as protic solvents can add to the formyl group of spiramycin molecules during standard solutions preparation while there was no evidence for the addition of acetonitrile and dimethyl sulfoxide (aprotic solvents). In addition, as time passed, the peak area of spiramycin decreased either in the spiked aqueous sample or milk sample while an increase in the peak area of H₂O-bound spiramycin was observed. After 96 h, more than 90% of spiramycin was converted to H₂O-bound spiramycin. In conclusion, we can propose the use of aprotic solvents for the preparation of spiramycin standard solutions especially when the prepared solutions are not used instantly. Moreover, ion transitions for both spiramycin and its H₂O-added form (843.6 m/z to 173.9 m/z and 861.5 m/z to 173.9 m/z, respectively) should be considered for the accurate quantification of spiramycin residue in aqueous samples such as milk.

Water, ethanol, and methanol as protic solvents can add to the formyl group of spiramycin molecules during standard solutions preparation while there was no evidence for the addition of acetonitrile and dimethyl sulfoxide as aprotic solvents.     

Optimization of a dry powder inhaler of ciprofloxacin-loaded polymeric nanomicelles by spray drying process

Ciprofloxacin is a commonly prescribed antibiotic for treatment of pulmonary infections. Nanocarriers such as nanomicelles can increase the drug residence time in the lungs and enhance their antibacterial effects. Dry powder inhalers (DPIs) are the preferred pulmonary drug delivery system and preparation of an optimum nanoaggregate from nanomicelles by means of spray drying would be valuable. The two-level full factorial design was performed in 16 runs. The effects of carrier type, anti-adhesion agent type, carrier to nanoparticle ratio and anti-adhesion agent to carrier ratio on the size of the microparticles, their in vitro pulmonary deposition, and redispersibility were investigated. Its antibacterial effects against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Streptococcus pneumoniae also were investigated. All independent variables were fitted into two-factorial interaction models. The optimum nanoaggregate was prepared using mannitol and L-phenylalanine with a D_0.5 of 1.7?µm and 60% fine particles. The process had no negative effect on the stability or drug release profile of the nanomicelles. The antibacterial effects of ciprofloxacin against microorganisms increased significantly. This spray drying process could be used for preparation of an optimum DPI from polymeric nanomicelles. This formulation could increase the efficacy of ciprofloxacin for treatment of pulmonary infections.     

Serum biochemical parameters of Huso huso

Serum biochemical parameters are important aspects in the management of endangered species such as Huso huso. The values of these parameters can be used for confirming the sex and any changes in the quality of waters and related soils. Serum samples of 15 H. huso fish were analysed and their serum parameter values were determined as mean±SD in both sexes. Age, weight, total length and fork length were the same between groups. We compared the levels of calcium (Ca; 2.13 ± 0.69–2.37 ± 0.38 mmol/l), total protein (TOP; 4.51 ± 1–5.50 ± 0.94 mg/dl), blood urea nitrogen (BUN; 1.32 ± 0.23–1.35 ± 0.31 mmol/l), albumin (Alb; 0.88 ± 0.18–1.26 ± 0.29 mg/dl), globulin (Glb; 3.63 ± 0.84–4.5 ± 0.69 mg/dl), uric acid (UA; 1.66 ± 0.18–1.79 ± 0.27 mmol/l), creatinine (CREA; 30.48 ± 4.31–30.48 ± 6.10 mmol/l), phosphorous (P; 2.18 ± 0.38–2.91 ± 0.67 mmol/l), magnesium (Mg; 1.15 ± 0.26–1.51 ± 0.35 mmol/l), glucose (Glc; 3.42 ± 0.84–6.69 ± 1.54 mmol/l), alkaline phosphatase (ALP; 4.48 ± 1.82–5 ± 1.04 IU/l) and amylase (156.19 ± 34.07–166.25 ± 64.27-IU/l). We have shown that there were no differences in the Ca, TOP, BUN, UA, CREA, Mg, ALP and amylase between sexes. However, male fish have higher Glc, P, Alb and Glb than females.     

Improving fund allocation in Iran Health Insurance Organization by applying internal reference pricing: a policy brief

Journal of Public Health - Improving healthcare quality services is one of the governments’ major commitments, which often faces budget constraints. Addressing this challenge requires that...     

Mechanisms of inflammatory responses to radiation and normal tissues toxicity: clinical implications

Purpose: Cancer treatment is one of the most challenging diseases in the present era. Among a few modalities for cancer therapy, radiotherapy plays a pivotal role in more than half of all treatments alone or combined with other cancer treatment modalities. Management of normal tissue toxicity induced by radiation is one of the most important limiting factors for an appropriate radiation treatment course. The evaluation of mechanisms of normal tissue toxicity has shown that immune responses especially inflammatory responses play a key role in both early and late side effects of exposure to ionizing radiation (IR). DNA damage and cell death, as well as damage to some organelles such as mitochondria initiate several signaling pathways that result in the response of immune cells. Massive cell damage which is a common phenomenon following exposure to a high dose of IR cause secretion of a lot of inflammatory mediators including cytokines and chemokines. These mediators initiate different changes in normal tissues that may continue for a long time after irradiation. In this study, we reviewed the mechanisms of inflammatory responses to IR that are involved in normal tissue toxicity and considered as the most important limiting factors in radiotherapy. Also, we introduced some agents that have been proposed for management of these responses.

Conclusions: The early inflammation during the radiation treatment is often a limiting factor in radiotherapy. In addition to the limiting factors, chronic inflammatory responses may increase the risk of second primary cancers through continuous free radical production, attenuation of tumor suppressor genes, and activation of oncogenes. Moreover, these effects may influence non-irradiated tissues through a mechanism named bystander effect.     

Detection and isolation of actuator and sensor faults for networked control systems

Detection and isolation of actuator and sensor faults in presence of disturbance for a class of linear networked control systems is considered, while unknown network‐induced delay is taken into account. The network‐induced delay effect is modeled by time‐varying polytopic uncertainties. Using eigen‐structure assignment approach, a fault detection filter is designed to decouple the fault and plant disturbance, while minimizing the effect of the induced delays in the network, using H _∞ and H _? index theories and benefiting from the free parameters in the eigen‐structure assignment approach. If the full disturbance de‐coupling is not feasible, another filter is designed to achieve partial de‐coupling and maximum robustness against the disturbance and network‐induced delay, while sensitivity to the fault is optimized. The actuator fault and disturbance vectors are augmented to define a new disturbance vector for isolation of the sensor and actuator faults. Numerical simulations are performed to evaluate the feasibility and applicability of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.